Trip out of Mexico as written by George Arthur Hurst: “Then in company with my brother Albert and family and old man Hansen and his two sons, Peter and Lewis, and their families, we pulled out of Dublan on the 23rd of February, 1911 for some point in the good old USA. We drove to Corroletos, 18 miles from Dublan, where Oscar was working. and found that he was out of town. We reached the bend of the river at dusk, made camp and got settled for the night. Next morning we drove out on the ridge about 18 miles, stopped for noon, fed and watered the team from water we carried in barrels we had tied on th side of each wagon, hooked up and went on and passed through the old Mexican town of La Sensione. That was customs when we entered Mexico a little more than twenty years before. Everything was quiet but all were looking for an attack by the rebel army but we passed through unmolested. We arrived in Colonia Diaz about sundown, having made 60 miles on our journey. The next day being Sunday we laid over and some of us went to S. School and Sacrament meeting . The following morning Feb 26th we intended to go on but Riley was quite sick so we laid over another day. On Feb 26th we drove out about 7 miles.
Albert was driving in lead. He jumped out to open a gate but didn’t stop the outfit but swung the gate open and frightened a pair of colts he was driving. They swung so short they broke the front wheel every spoke. Of course that forced us to camp but we were only a short distance from water. We unloaded our light wagon and dumped Mary and the children out on the ground and Albert and I beat it back to to town to get the wagon fixed up. As we passed the store he bought the spokes to rebuild the wheel and went on down to a shop to get the work done. When he asked the blacksmith when he could to the job, he said not for two days. Then I asked him if we could hire some tools if we could find a man to do the work. He whined around a while, then said he would let us have the tools. I knew the tools better than he did, as I had rented the same outfit from the man he was renting from. So I told Albert to get the stuff, and by the time he had the broken wheel and the material in the shop I had the tools I wanted and ready to go to work. Albert bought a locust tree from a neighbor and made a tongue while I built the wheel. I had no sooner started to work than I found that our very busy friend didn’t have anything to do but watch me. A stranger came in and asked who the new man was. He answered, I don’t know but if he stays here long, I will know something about building a wheel. I soon had the wheel ready for the tire. We sized the tire and put the fire around. I helped Albert finish the tongue while it heated, then we put the tire on and cooled it off. We loaded the wheel and tongue in and asked what the bill was. Albert gave him a dollar for the use of the shop and tools, and we drove off and left him wondering what it was all about and never told him who we were and never knew his name
It was too late when we got to camp and loaded up to go on, so we staayed all night. On the 28th we started early and had no sooner got on the road when it started to rain a slow, cold drizzle. The clouds hung very low and at times were not able to see only a few hundred feet in any direction. When we passed out of the Booker pasture that Oscar and I had fenced a few years before, we crossed the trail of the rebel army. I would judge from the tracks there must have been about 200 mounted men and from 35-50 following on foot. But we were under cover of the clouds and not seen by them.”
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